Talossa’s Historical Outline

Original English Text

(drawn from several Web sources and edited by Xhorxh Asmour)

Talossan Royal Coat of Arms

On December 26 1979 Robert Ben Madison (born 1966) declared his bedroom to be independent from the United States of America, and the Kingdom of Talossa (El Regipäts Talossan) was formed. “Talossa” is derived from a Finnish word meaning “inside the house”, because the whole country was then simply King Robert’s childhood bedroom and a small Tudor house near the University of Wisconsin. The Kingdom eventually expanded to cover the east side of Milwaukee, the Isle of Cézembre (France) and the Antarctic Territory of Pengopäts. The capital city is Abbavilla, located in Atatürk province.

General Outline of Talossa

Talossa considers herself a real nation (not a “micronation”) and has a detailed and in-depth history, full of revolutions and disputes. Although Talossa is currently a monarchy, in the past it ranged from a republic to a communist state. Talossa “expanded” to include five of Ben Madison’s childhood friends and several relatives in the summer of 1981, a year that also saw other important changes to the Talossan culture, particularly the full emergence of El Glhetg (the Talossan Language) and Talossa’s first democratic elections.

The 1990s brought Talossa into the Internet era: Wittenberg (our message forum) was created and Talossa’s webpage went online for the first time on January 15, 1996, ushering in a new generation of so-called Cybercits (short for Cyber-citizens). The mid-1990s saw strong debates between two increasingly separated groups of Talossans: the Old Growthers and the new Cybercits.

Mad King Ben

On September 26 1997 there was an exodus of several discontented citizens of the Kingdom of Talossa, full and prospective, who formed a micronation called “Penguinea”. Quite a few Talossans were lost that day, the day that was referred to by the king as “Talossa’s Vietnam”. Penguinea had ca20 citizens and its spiritual home was located on St. Helena Island, off the coast of Queensland, Australia. It was a vivid community with rich cultural life, having many magazines, its own radio broadcast, web-serials, bands, an online art gallery and active participants. As time went by, many axifugal forces appeared as new citizens were coming in and out. Finally, after a debate on its future, Penguinea was transformed in 2000 into the Pangaean Community and later into the online community of Polyphony. Eventually it and its members faded into obscurity and ultimately broke apart.

The Talossan Flag blowing in the breeze in Vuode Province

Many citizens began to see Ben Madison as increasingly authoritarian, or even mad. Thus, the political environment of Talossa was once again heated. In 1998, a citizen named Chirisch dal Nava (today Kane dal Nava) immigrated to Talossa via Internet and immediately had an irrevocable role to play in Talossan history. Sadly, King Robert I, like many poor monarchs, was not very accepting of citizens with radically different ideas or citizens that contested his own power and authority. He and dal Nava never got along well. Robert I launched a vendetta aimed at

getting dal Nava out of Talossa by any legal (but not necessarily moral or ethical) means. Continued arguments soon forced citizens to choose sides: those supporting the king, those supporting dal Nava and those who did not wish to get involved in that personal war. On June 1 2004, Talossa saw the second attempt at secession in all of her history. With the political and personal battles revolving around

Electrabase Where it all began "Capital Naziunal"

Ben and his arch-enemy, dal Nava and several citizens backing him up left the Kingdom and created the Talossan Republic as an independant micronation.

This caused King Robert I to be considerably outraged, and soon after, he was urged to quit or risk losing Talossa altogether. Thankfully, he yielded and abdicated the throne on August 15 2005 to his young step-grandson, who became king as Louis I. King Louis, a minor, was incapable of leading the country. On November 29 2006, he abdicated the throne by the act of the Ziu. Once again, a period of interregnum ensued. On March 14 2007, upon election from the Ziu and public ratification, John Woolley (King John) ascended the throne.

The Kingdom is now able to focus on the citizens themselves, and on the continued development of the Talossan culture and language, remaining highly active due to an ever-increasing Internet presence, with a steady stream of two to three new citizens every month.